


To Reach A Star

by miss_liding



Category: World Trigger
Genre: 5 Times, Gen, self-indulgent angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-05 22:12:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6725545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_liding/pseuds/miss_liding
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jin makes preparations and says his farewells in his usual manner (which is to say, in the most round-about way possible).</p><p>{Five times Jin lied about his side-effect, and one time he didn't. Fill for WT Prompt Meme}</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Reach A Star

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Five times Jin lied about his side effect - or didn't.

 

**V. Sawamura Kyouko**

 

He hadn't seen Sawamura-san for a week, his many schemes and her work contriving to separate them, so when he saw her at the other end of a corridor he arrowed towards her with singular determination.

"Why, if it isn't the beautiful Sawamura-san! Let me relieve you of your burden and brighten your day as you have mine," Jin said as he liberated her of her files with familiar ease.

Sawamura barely slanted a suspicious look at him before she allowed it. Consecutive years of acquaintanceship with Jin had inured her to his particular brand of platonic flirting, even as he began wax more poetic at the ripe old age of twenty. "Jin, aren't you a bit old for this now? I'm not sure why you still bother."

"One day you'll accept my advances," Jin told her. It was easy to summon a smile for her, as easy as it always had been. "My side-effect tells me so."

Sawamura was too mature to say so directly but her Look at Jin told him precisely where he could shove his side-effect. "That's a worse fabrication than any of what Netsuki-san's fed to the press. Give up already, you're been hitting on me since you were _fourteen_."

"And you're still every bit as lovely now as you were then," Jin said, as sincerely as she would believe.

"Pervert. Well, if you're so keen on reliving the old days…"

"You used to-- ouch!" The files wobbled, but did not fall.

Sawamura's kicks were also as strong now as they were back in her youth, Jin reflected as he hobbled along behind her. It was a little comforting, to know that the future would proceed in much the same way as the past. Border could, and would, do fine without him.

 

 ☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

 

**IV. Midorikawa Shun**

 

"Happy birthday!" chorused the entire room as Jin walked in, Shun half a beat away from treading on his heels. Two decades of practise had made his mask of surprise impenetrable to all but the most seasoned of his acquaintances; nevertheless, he didn't have to fake the happiness that lit him up from the inside.

"Surprise! Happy birthday, Jin-san!" said Shun, catching up to Jin. It was the fourth or fifth time he'd said as such to Jin today. "Hey, Jin, didn't I do a good job of distracting you? You didn't guess at all, did you?"

Shun's growth spurt had still left him significantly shorter than Jin, which was a minor relief. Such excitement was best kept below eye-level. He suspected Shun was glad of it too, though for different reasons; looking down at someone you'd looked up to for so long was an unpleasant way of messing with perspective.

Jin did not intend to change that perspective. "My side-effect didn't tell me a thing," he said solemnly. Shun glowed with delight.

Across the room, Karasuma quirked a brow at Jin. Jin winked in response and continued through the room, gathering up birthday wishes like autumn leaves. A talented elite had to thank all his supporters, after all.

 

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

 

**III. Tachikawa Kei**

 

Tachikawa yawned as he and Jin left the meeting room. "All these Neighbour invasions are getting a bit repetitive. They could at least try space them out a bit."

"I thought you were a battle junkie, Tachikawa-san. Are you getting soft in your old age?" Jin teased.

"There's too much paperwork involved. I'm a sword-wielder, not a pen-wielder."

"I still remember when Kazama would bribe you with rank battles to get your reports done."

Tachikawa stared wistfully into the middle distance. "Those were good days. He's lost his touch; he just puts me in a headlock now." He rubbed his neck, soothing the ghost of an ache. "Speaking of which, we still haven't had a proper ten-match battle since you went back to A-rank!"

Jin looked away. "Sorry, that might have to wait. A talented elite is always in high demand during these times."

"Then after this invasion. You, me, training rooms."

Jin turned back to Tachikawa, a smile fixed on his face. "Of course. My side-effect tells me that I'll win, 10 - 0."

"Oh, is that so? I look forward to overturning that spectacularly." Tachikawa clapped a hand on Jin's shoulder in farewell before going off in the direction of his operation room.

He didn't look back, for which Jin was glad. It would be better for Tachikawa that way.

 

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

 

**II. Kuuga Yuuma**

 

The upcoming invasion had Jin working overtime. For as long as people were awake he would be walking around, sifting through their possible futures in search of any nugget to help Border. Not all of them were pleasant futures, either. It had been a while since he last slept peacefully through the night.

He knew, even without foresight, to prepare two cups of tea before he went up to the rooftop that night.

Yuuma seemed unsurprised by Jin's appearance, and if he noticed the rings around Jin's eyes, dark like the coffee stains on his paperwork, he didn't say a word. "Thanks for the tea, Jin-san."

"You're welcome. I do my best to take care of my juniors." Yuuma had taken the news of another invasion in his stride, though it had delayed expedition plans even further. He was perched so precariously on the edge of the concrete lip of the roof that Jin had to bite back a reflexive warning. If anyone didn't need to be warned about safety, it was Yuuma.

Yuuma took the tea, but continued to stare into the night sky.

"Star-gazing is nice, isn't it?" said Jin softly.

Yuuma hummed quietly, non-committal. "The stars look gentler, here."

Jin nodded, though the darkness of space was more comforting for him. If there was nothing to see, there would be less to think about.

He never saw nothing, though. A phantom of the question echoed in his mind before Yuuma voiced it. "Jin… Have you ever seen your own death?"

"You know that my side effect can't see that far," he said, tasted grit on the backs of his teeth.

If Yuuma could tell that it was a blatant lie, he didn't give any indication, letting Jin retreat back to the dim warmth of his room in silence. Yuuma was older than his years in that respect, as he was in many others.

 

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

 

**I. Kido Masamune**

 

The lead-up to the invasion stretched out past one week, two weeks. Empty hours linked meetings after meetings together; preparations and plans were triple-checked, then checked again. The entirety of Border was alert, tensed and waiting. 

Though it was objectively still imposing, Jin had stopped being intimidated by the entrance to the main meeting room by his third-ever visit. It had taken him slightly longer to become accustomed to the gazes of the directors hanging off him as he entered, weights he'd carried ever since he joined.

This was one of his near-daily meetings with the directors. Again, Kido was speaking seriously; Kinuta was grumpy; Netsuki was nervous. It was eerie how familiar this anxious limbo had become.

"Lastly, Jin." As much as their agendas clashed, Jin respected Kido. It took a certain sort of mettle to head a battalion of teenagers without becoming swamped. "We now have a specific time frame for the invasion. What does your side-effect say about casualties?"

Jin swallowed. It would be too easy to spill his burden here, so close to the finish line. Weariness dragged at his bones, but the adrenaline felt like reverse-deja-vu in his veins. Everything was new; everything was old. It was the first, the last; the players changed, but the cycle was eternal.

It needed to be said, but Jin still hated himself for it. "Casualties- both civilian and of Border- are still very unlikely," he said smoothly, though there was a knot in his throat, the size of twenty years of falsehoods and their telling. 

Netsuki mopped his brow again. "Good, good."

Kido moved his hand from his scar to the tabletop. "Thank you for your hard work, Jin."

Jin was fiercely glad that he and Kido had never been closer than a grudging tolerance. It made doing his duty much easier.

 

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

 

**0\. Mikumo Osamu**

 

Agony screamed through every single one of Jin's nerve endings as his trion body faded and pins and needles turned to daggers. Fuujin dropped from flesh-and-blood fingers, clattering on concrete. He faintly registered an explosion as the world collapsed down around him. Someone screamed his name. "Jin-san!"

 

...

 

 

Jin opened his eyes. Everything was hazy and dark. There was something heavy on his chest that sent pain lancing up through his ribs every time he breathed. He couldn't feel his legs.

He coughed wetly and regretted it immediately.

"Jin-san! Are you--"

"Megane-kun?" Ah, at least he wasn't alone.

"They collapsed the buildings on-- I tried to reach-- someone will be coming soon, I'm sure! We'll get out of here, just hang on until then!" Mikumo gripped his hand.

"Megane-kun, give me your trigger."

"My trigger? But--"

Jin turned his head and spat blood onto the ground. "Please."

"O-okay." The glow of Mikumo's reverse transformation lit up their rubble cavern for a brief instant.

Jin closed his hand around Mikumo's trigger. It was getting hard to breathe. "You can have it back in a minute, alrig--" Jin stopped in a wheeze and closed his eyes.

"Jin-san?"

Getting hard to concentrate. Everything was numb.

"Jin-san, you… everything's going to turn out okay, right?"

Breathe in, focus. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The trigger warmed to burning under his touch, but he couldn't let go.

Sand in his mouth. "Everything's going to be fine, Megane-kun."

Breathe out.

 

ミ☆

 

**Author's Note:**

>   * title is a fragment of a Van Gogh quote
>   * I have no actual evidence to back up this particular version of Jin's demise (can you tell this fic was birthed entirely for the sake of writing Jin's death scene)
>   * I love to collect thoughts/theories/tears! Please drop a comment and/or a kudos if you feel so inclined c:
> 



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